Mostly About Organized Crime

11/14/2016

Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, the powerful capo of the Genovese family who controlled gay bars, ran gambling junkets and trafficked illicit drugs, was "a friend and hidden partner" of Kirk Kerkorian according to an FBI informant in a 1973 memo recently obtained by this blog. The FBI memo provides:

In June, 1973, [informant] advised the subject [Ianniello] is a friend and hidden partner of KIRK KERKORIAN, the head of Tracey Investments Corporation, and the largest stockholder of Metro Goldwyn Mayer stocks. KERKORIAN is allegedly planning to build the largest hotel-casino in Las Vegas to be called "The Grand Hotel."

Kerkorian died last year at 98 years old, and upon his passing Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, "who became acquainted with Kerkorian as an attorney representing the businessman's brother in the 1960s and 1970s," eulogized Kerkorian from the Senate floor as reported by the Review-Journal:

"He was just a really interesting, wonderful man," Reid said. "He is one of the personalities I will never forget. My relationship with him is one of the special things in my life. I feel so fortunate to be able to talk on a personal basis about this man. He was one of a kind."

Harry Reid long has been dogged by allegations that he was a tool of the Mafia during his former days as Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.

Reid was called "'Mr. Clean Face' by Kansas City mobster Joe Agosto who had turned federal witness in the FBI's case against the mob skimming of casino dollars," and "Agosto was recorded on FBI tape saying that 'I gotta Clean Face in my pocket'" as reported by John Kass for the Chicago Tribune. The good senator says he was called "Clean Face" because he was beyond reproach. Of course, that's the point of a "clean face" or a "clean name" as a tool or front: someone who seemingly is above suspicion in doing the mob's bidding.

10/16/2016

The newly-released biography Al Capone: His Life, Legacy, and Legend by Deirdre Bair reveals that "the man who once ruled the Chicago Outfit, a multimillion-dollar bootlegging and racketeering empire that spanned North America, was just happy to be taken to the drugstore to buy a pack of Dentyne gum" as reported by the New York Post: "his brain ravaged by a syphilis infection that had gone untreated, he had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old."

07/11/2016

AMC tonight launches its eight-part series The Making of the Mob: Chicago "chronicling the rise and fall of iconic gangster Al Capone, as well as the story of his successors, collectively known as 'The Chicago Outfit'" according to the docu-drama's website:

Spanning the better part of a century, the series begins with Capon's early days in New York and continues through his move to Chicago -- to work with his childhood mentor in the underworld. When Prohibition hits, battles break out as the city's gangs rush to set up bootlegging operations and Capone decides to go up against his rivals. As he consolidates power, he achieves legendary status for his ruthless tactics and over-the-top lifestyle that attracts the wrath of President Herbert Hoover.

02/12/2016

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman sentenced Paul Carparelli to 3 1/2 years in a federal prison, and told the reputed mobster" it was clear from the hundreds of hours of undercover recordings captured by the FBI that [he] 'took pleasure in the fear and discomfort of others'" as reported by Jason Meisner for the Chicago Tribune: "Carparelli pleaded guilty last year to five counts stemming from a series of extortion attempts involving deadbeat businessmen."